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LONDON () -- Britain's ruling Conservatives braced for a hammering Thursday as voters went to the polls in what could prove to be make-or-break local elections for Prime Minister John Major.
Major's party, defending around 4,000 of 12,000 seats at stake across England and Wales but excluding London, will be lucky if they lose just 1,000 of them, according to pollsters and academic experts. Some believe the Conservatives could lose up to half the seats they hold.
Such a humiliation would prompt a new bout of speculation in political circles that a formal challenge to Major's 4-1/2-year leadership of his party could be launched by disaffected members of parliament.
When the seats were last contested four years ago, the Conservatives won 35 percent of the vote compared with 36 percent for the Labour Party and 21 percent for the minority Liberal Democrats.
Tories Face Losses
05 May 1995
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